Week 9: SoCal CIF Bowl Rankings

Senior running back/defensive back Taylor Cornejo has been a key player in each of Lompoc’s last 28 wins, which also is the longest current winning streak in the state. Photo by Ronnie Flores.

Note: The top 10 teams that would be ranked by CalHiSportsFootball for the CIF Open Division in Southern California would be:

1. Narbonne (Harbor City); 2. Vista Murrieta (Murrieta); 3. Mission Viejo; 4. St. John Bosco (Bellflower); 5. Mater Dei (Santa Ana); 6. Santa Margarita (Rancho SM); 7. St. Bonaventure (Ventura); 8. Centennial (Corona); 9. Alemany (Mission Hills); 10. El Toro (Lake Forest).

With assistance from Harold Abend and Paul Muyskens, here are the Week 9 rankings for each of Southern California’s CIF bowl game divisions (previous ranking in parentheses; after games of Saturday, Oct. 20):

DIVISION I SOUTH
1. (1) Narbonne (Harbor City) 8-0
2. (2) Vista Murrieta (Murrieta) 8-0
3. (3) Mission Viejo 8-0
4. (9) St. John Bosco (Bellflower) 8-0*
5. (4) Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 6-2
6. (5) Santa Margarita (Rancho SM) 7-1
7. (6) St. Bonaventure (Ventura) 7-1
8. (7) Centennial (Corona) 7-1
9. (8) Alemany (Mission Hills) 7-1
10. (10) El Toro (Lake Forest) 9-0
11. (11) Upland 8-0
12. (12) Tesoro (Rancho SM) 6-2
13. (13) Chaparral (Temecula) 7-1
14. (14) Crenshaw (Los Angeles) 7-1
15. (15) Oaks Christian (Westlake Village) 7-1
*Does not include forfeit losses.
Drops: None.
Bubble Teams: Bishop Amat (La Puente) 6-1-1, Central (Fresno) 6-2, Charter Oak (Covina) 7-1, Clovis 7-1, Clovis North (Clovis) 8-0, Crespi (Encino) 7-2, Lutheran (Orange) 6-2, Mission Hills (San Marcos) 6-2, Moorpark 7-1, Murrieta Valley (Murrieta) 7-1, Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks) 6-3, Palos Verdes (PV Estates) 5-3, Rancho Cucamonga 6-2, Servite (Anaheim) 3-5, Westlake (Westlake Village) 6-3.
No. 1 Team Result: Narbonne defeated San Pedro 28-7.
Race for No. 1: Those four forfeit losses that are on the official record of St. John Bosco became much more significant after the Braves beat previous No. 4 Mater Dei 27-19 to take over first-place in the Trinity League. As far as the bowl games are concerned, however, they won’t really come into play unless St. John Bosco were to win the CIF Southern Section Pac-Five Division title. After that win, Bosco had to jump ahead of Mater Dei in the rankings and that forced several other teams to drop one spot as well due to head-to-head losses. There were no other changes in this week’s rankings.

DIVISION II SOUTH
1. (1) Oceanside 7-1
2. (2) Lompoc 8-0
3. (3) Edison (Huntington Beach) 7-1
4. (4) Chaminade (West Hills) 7-1
5. (5) Hart (Newhall) 7-1
6. (6) Tustin 8-0
7. (7) Serra (Gardena) 6-2
8. (8) Citrus Hill (Perris) 8-0
9. (9) Serrano (Phelan) 8-0
10. (11) La Costa Canyon (Carlsbad) 7-1
11. (12) Cathedral Catholic (San Diego) 6-2
12. (10) Garces (Bakersfield) 7-1
13. (13) La Serna (Whittier) 7-1
14. (14) Helix (La Mesa) 6-1
15. (15) La Mirada 7-1
Drops: None.
Bubble Teams: Carter (Rialto) 8-0, El Diamante (Visalia) 6-2, Harvard-Westlake (North Hollywood) 6-2, Los Alamitos 6-2, Olympian (Chula Vista) 8-0, Palmdale 8-0, Palos Verdes (PV Peninsula) 5-3, Poway 6-2, Summit (Fontana) 7-1, Valencia 5-3, Villa Park 7-1.
No. 1 Result: Oceanside defeated Ramona 49-6.
Race for No. 1: What is continuing to make this division intriguing is that among the first five teams only two of them (Lompoc and Chaminade) would play each other in a section playoff. And if those other three win out (or even Tustin does in the same bracket as Edison), we could have four very strong candidates vying for just two CIF SoCal D2 bowl berths. The hunch here is that if Oceanside is on the board on Selection Sunday, with its history of already winning two CIF state bowl titles, then it might have the edge among voters and would then play one of the CIFSS champions (probably the Western Division, which is the one with Chaminade and Lompoc). That might make Edison or Tustin the odd man out, but there’s still a lot of games to play before we get to that. One of those is Oceanside’s challenging matchup this week against No. 10 La Costa Canyon

DIVISION III SOUTH
1. (1) Paraclete (Lancaster) 7-1
2. (2) Nordhoff (Ojai) 8-0
3. (4) Mission Oak (Tulare) 7-1
4. (5) St. Augustine (San Diego) 6-2
5. (6) Monrovia 6-2
6. (7) Wasco 8-0
7. (8) Valley Center 6-2
8. (9) Madison (San Diego) 7-1
9. (10) Laguna Beach 7-0-1
10. (NR) San Dimas 7-1
Drops: Previous No. 3 Segerstrom (Santa Ana) lost to Orange 45-33.
Bubble Teams: Banning 7-1, Brawley 7-1, Corona del Mar (Newport Beach) 5-3*, La Salle (Pasadena) 8-0, North (Torrance) 6-2, San Marino 8-0, Segerstrom (Santa Ana) 7-1.
*Forfeit win not included.
No. 1 Team Result: Paraclete defeated Brentwood (Los Angeles) 35-0.
Race for No. 1: The only bowl game division in the south with much movement this week was this one. That is mostly due to previous No. 3 Segerstrom falling to a team from Orange that was 4-3 entering the game. Mission Oak, which has lost only to D2 Mt. Whitney, went up to No. 3 while St. Augustine was pegged to go up to No. 4. The Saints actually lost last week but it was by just 27-20 to D2 South-ranked Cathedral Catholic. Chosen to go in for Segerstrom this week was San Dimas, which has a 35-23 loss to Monrovia but also has solid wins over Bonita of La Verne and San Gabriel.

DIVISION IV SOUTH
1. (1) Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth) 8-0
2. (2) Bishop Diego (Santa Barbara) 8-0
3. (3) Mission Prep (San Luis Obispo) 8-0
4. (4) Ontario Christian 8-0
5. (5) Rio Hondo Prep (Arcadia) 7-1
6. (6) St. Margaret’s (SJ Capistrano) 7-1
7. (7) Santa Fe Christian (Solana Beach) 5-3
8. (8) Horizon (San Diego) 6-2
9. (9) La Jolla Country Day (La Jolla) 4-3
10. (10) Francis Parker (San Diego) 5-3
Drops: None.
Bubble Teams: Army-Navy (Carlsbad) 8-0, Aquinas (San Bernardino) 5-3, Bakersfield Christian 6-2, Boron 8-1, Christian (El Cajon) 6-2, St. Anthony (Long Beach) 5-3, Windward (Los Angeles) 5-2.
No. 1 Team Result: Sierra Canyon defeated Marshall (Los Angeles) 51-0.
Race for No. 1: Despite La Jolla Country Day not putting up that much of a fight in a 37-6 loss to No. 7 Santa Fe Christian, there were still no new teams chosen to go into this week’s rankings. After looking over all of the bubble teams, even unbeaten Army-Navy, the next best team still seemed like Christian of El Cajon. The Patriots have played a strong schedule, but still have a head-to-head loss to Francis Parker (which still has a head-to-head loss to La Jolla Country Day). This week’s top matchup is No. 2 Bishop Diego meeting D3 South No. 2 Nordhoff of Ojai for the Tri-Valley League championship.

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